The latest offering to both Huntington and Broadway in Boston
subscribers is the Huntington's production of Observe the Sons of
Ulster Marching Towards the Somme, presented in collaboration with
Clear Channel Entertainment (Broadway in Boston's parent organization) at
the Wilbur theatre, now through May 5, 2002.

Six of the original cast members, including Scott Wolf (Party of
Five) and Justin Theroux (Mulholland Drive), are still on board
from the production director Nicholas Martin originally mounted on the
small stage at the Williamstown Theatre Festival last summer.

Scenic Designer Alexander Dodge helps to expand what, for practical
purposes, must have been a very intimate production into one with an
overblown grandeur not quite befitting Frank McGuinness' lyrical play. A
sloping green metal construct aptly suggests the green hills of Ulster and
suits the opening of the second act well when action occurs simultaneously
in four different locations. However, the same space and shape isn't as
befitting to represent the barracks where the men are first thrown
together or the trenches in France at the dawn of what, for most of them,
would be their final day.

Dashiell Eaves and Scott Wolf

The effect of McGuinness' drama relies somewhat on knowing the history
upon which the events are based. He uses symbols and makes cultural
references that may not be familiar to American audiences. Your
enjoyment will be greatly enhanced by allowing enough time to absorb the
two pages of information included in your Playbill before the performance
begins.

McGuinness makes his points sparingly. Although this is a play that
ultimately speaks to the horrors and wastefulness of war, we never meet
the enemy, the Allied troops or the officers who trained these Irish lads
and led them into battle as members of the British armed forces. Instead,
the play focuses entirely on the formation of these eight disparate human
beings into a unit of comrades prepared to die for each other as much as
for their beloved country.

Their personal stories unfold in three efficient scenes, bracketed by
the 1969 appearance of the sole survivor among them, hauntingly played by
Geddeth Smith. The old man rails against The Battle of the Somme, a
136-day losing campaign that was the bloodiest of the World War I Western
Front. We then meet the newly enlisted lads as they shed their civilian
trappings, don military garb, learn how to make up a bunk and test each
other's mettle. Realizing their lives may be in each other's hands,
there's a noticeable wariness among them and some sparring for a pecking
order.

The one who stands alone is the disaffected Pyper, wonderfully realized
by Theroux and eerily well matched with his elder self. We suspect that
each of these young men is running away from something, as much as running
to something, but Pyper's enlistment is clearly a suicidal gesture.

When next we see them, they've paired up across the Ulster countryside
for some "R&R." For them it would be "recharge and reflection," not "rest
and recreation." The initial hardy resolve and eagerness is wearing thin,
allowing self-doubt and fear to rise to the surface.

We then jump a few more months to the final scene in the pre-dawn hours
on the banks of The Somme. The men playfully reenact a famous Protestant
victory that took place on the River Boyne on July 1, 1690, before exchanging
symbolic orange sashes with each other and heading off into battle on July
1, 1916. The group has coalesced by their need for each other as much as
any need for a cause or a reason. A reason to die. And how sad that a
battle which claimed 80% of the 7,000 member 36th Ulster Division before
noon on the first day hasn't stood as reminder enough that we do not want
to be doing this. McGuinness, in the hands of Martin and his fine acting
ensemble, offer us another eloquent reminder.

Performances of Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the
Somme are at The Wilbur Theatre, 246 Tremont Street, Boston now
through May 5th on Tuesday - Friday at 8pm, Saturday at 2pm & 8pm and
Sunday at 2pm & 7:30pm. Tickets are available through Ticketmaster at
617-931-2787, Ticketmaster.com or directly at the Wilbur Theatre Box
Office or Colonial Theatre Box Office, 106 Bolyston Street, Boston.